EULESS, Texas — Several hundred airline catering workers employed at LSG Skychefs from cities across the country joined a lively informational picket line near the American Airlines headquarters outside the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Aug. 13. The unionists, members of UNITE HERE, are fighting for a new contract. They say they are targeting American because it is LSG’s biggest customer.
Barry Sahi, a hotel housekeeper, came on a bus with 28 other unionists from San Antonio. He described having to work double shifts. “The corporations make more money and we deserve to get paid more,” he said.
Nearly half of LSG Skychefs workers receive $11.35 an hour or less and can’t afford their employers’ health insurance plans, according to UNITE HERE. The union represents some 18,000 catering workers at airports nationwide.
The 11,000 union members working for LSG, including 926 at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, voted in June to authorize a strike. Airline workers like rail workers face anti-working-class legislation under the Railway Labor Act, which is designed to restrict workers’ right to strike.